FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Tech for Campaigns is launching a competitive funding program for cutting-edge digital marketing experiments across the Democratic ecosystem. The Lab is an accelerator-style program for Democratic digital experimentation that gives political organizations the funding, commercial expertise, and transparent knowledge sharing to win in 2026.

We're discontinuing our Digital Campaign Services and Digital Voter Turnout programs to make a fundamental shift toward catalyzing industry-wide transformation through experimentation, knowledge sharing, and capability building.

In 2017, our founders realized that many in the tech industry have indispensable skills that non-presidential and down-ticket campaigns find hard to access, even at the volunteer level - like cutting edge performance and social marketing, data analysts and science, engineers and many more.

At the same time, many members of the tech community were craving a way to get involved beyond their pocket books and hadn’t found an ongoing means to help campaigns. Connecting these two groups - volunteers and campaigns - could help fix this skill shortfall in these campaigns and achieve better outcomes, and we were off to the races.

Tech for Campaigns has always pursued the highest ROI digital marketing and data strategies to help the Democrats win power. Now the highest ROI opportunity has fundamentally shifted, and we're shifting with it to make sure we’re on a winning team.

Applications for round 1 are open now through March 11, 2026

We  won’t win by doing last cycle's tactics slightly better. We'll win by adapting faster to fundamentally new terrain, starting with the midterms. TFC’s superpower has always been building new models to meet the moment. We're building the infrastructure to ensure Democrats aren't just keeping pace but are setting it to win.

We're not just funding programs. Recipients receive ongoing guidance from technology executives - We're working with leaders from Netflix, Haus, Airbnb and Y Combinator as part of our Commercial Advisory Committee to help ensure the experiments are not only rigorous, but supported throughout. Again, it's not just about money.

Our Committee is a collaborative group of senior commercial operators from companies like Netflix and Airbnb who partner with political organizations to strengthen the work together. Members bring rigorous thinking and the latest tools and techniques to guide experiments, support setup, and provide ongoing feedback, ensuring all teams are stronger and better equipped to win.

Yes. We will share results from all funded experiments, including learnings that help us pivot in new directions, with trusted partners (including caucuses and industry partners) and donors. This transparency prevents organizations from repeating mistakes and builds collective knowledge faster. It also ensures the industry is keeping pace with rapid technological change.

However, full experiment details and results may not be shared publicly on our site.

Political organizations with innovative ideas and commercial digital marketers ready to test in politics are invited to apply.

You must be US citizens or permanent residents. Tech for Campaigns is a hybrid PAC registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Organizations must be permitted to accept contributions, up to the amount requested in this proposal, from a federal hybrid PAC’s non-federal (“soft money”) account in order to qualify. This may include, but is not limited to, a federal PAC, state PAC, 501(c)(4) organization.

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Part of the reason we are opening this up is to crowdsource the best ideas, but here are a few examples of the kind of work The Lab is excited to fund:

• How do you help facilitate candidates and issues showing up where voters are already asking questions - meaning in AI tools like ChatGPT?
• How can you responsibly use AI to personalize communication with voters?
• Can we use new platforms like Reddit and Substack to build trusting relationships with voters and aid persuasion?
• Can we challenge norms and find ways to raise as much or more money without making donors feel like they are spammed?

We’re not looking for opportunities to provide general program support rather than discrete tests or ongoing program expansion of something you are already investing in.

Funding size will vary based on experiment scope and required sample size for statistical validity. Submit your proposal and let’s chat!

Experiments submitted for our first round of applications should run in the first half of the year and either target Spring 2026 races or be non-race dependent.

Whether you have a full experiment design and want feedback or just a strong hypothesis, you can apply. We'll help design experiments with methodological rigor so the findings are defensible and actionable.

Applications will be evaluated by TFC and our Commercial Advisory Committee on criteria including AI adoption, potential for breakthrough innovation, and feasibility and execution capability.

We’ll also look at the team and their expertise and ability to execute well.

Our review time is 2-4 weeks.

Applications will be reviewed by TFC and the Commercial Advisory Committee, a group of tech and digital marketing experts. The Committee evaluates proposals and makes funding recommendations.

The Lab is about more than funding.

Recipients receive ongoing guidance from technology executives - We're working with leaders from Netflix, Haus, Airbnb and Y Combinator as part of our Commercial Advisory Committee to help ensure the experiments are not only rigorous, but supported throughout. Again, it's not just about money.

Early insights and shared learnings - results shared across the ecosystem, including what fails, so we can double down on what works and stop spending on what doesn't.

Not every experiment will work, but the goal is to learn from everything we do so we are in a better position to drive the electoral outcomes we need. We require transparent reporting of both positive results and learnings. All results are valuable because they prevent others from repeating unsuccessful approaches and build collective knowledge about what doesn't work and how we might pivot for future or additional testing.

Experiments will target Spring 2026 races and generate immediate learnings that can inform the 2026 midterms. We aim to create a sustained edge that makes rigorous experimentation standard practice across the Democratic ecosystem.

United States only. Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents.

Please reach out to our TFC team at info@techforcampaigns.org.

For all press or media-related inquiries, please contact press@techforcampaigns.org.